Viking Supporters Co-operative
Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: roverstillidie91 on May 27, 2012, 06:34:03 pm
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Did anyone watch the league two play off final today ?
really impressed with them today and as they have 9 out of 11 in their team from their academy
be interesting if we could do something similar as to bringing players into the first team from our youth system
to be honest if DS was to leave i'd definetly have their manager in... has done a brilliant job to be honest
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Premiership interest in some of there players so unfortunately for them they will lose a few but they have been good to watch!
Crewe have produced well through there academy for years! Its a decent setup and is good to see - as good as it is to see for crewe fans though they never have big success as a club do they!
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Delighted for the Alex. fans, we've had some great games with them over the years and I love the ethos /set-up of the club. Deserved..........definitely and well done to you all.
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I've just got back from wembley after watching the play off final (went with the cheltenham fans). I honestly think after watching the game and assessing players, rovers should look at signing scott brown the cheltenham keeper. Great shot stopper and the kick on the lad is unreal ( hit the target man every time and the oppositions area without bouncing) and availible on a free.
Also jermain mcglashen (winger) and jombati (defender) would add something to the team. As for crews first goal unstopable and nick powells destined for the premireship it was apparent after 5 minuites that he was a class apart.
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If i was Powell though i would probably stay with Crewe another season because he's playing first team football and only 17/18 or however old he is
and if he was to join man utd or someone he would probably be playing in the reserves so better all round for another season in the first team at Crewe
unless he opts to join Arsenal where like oxlade-chamberlain he might just get a opportunity to shine
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If i was Powell though i would probably stay with Crewe another season because he's playing first team football and only 17/18 or however old he is
and if he was to join man utd or someone he would probably be playing in the reserves so better all round for another season in the first team at Crewe
unless he opts to join Arsenal where like oxlade-chamberlain he might just get a opportunity to shine
on the other hand, United (using your example) could end up loaning him back out again to pick up experience
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Few rumours that Man U will sign Powell then loan him back out to Crewe, best of both worlds for him. Their clubs strategy is MUCH better than our/McKay's 'loan any t**t and pretend he's good, when he's actually not' strategy.
I hope John Ryan watched yesterday's game and realised what a laughably pathetic thing he did last season. Bunch of amateurs our club.
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SOD wanted to do what Crewe have done and develop from within even if it meant yo-yoing between League One and the Championship. It was the sustainable option. He was over-ruled. Suddenly it's all the rage, what a brilliant strategy, let's do a Crewe! Let's nick their manager (just f*** Saunders off, I presume?).
Now we're all in League One together. Let's hope what we're left with is sustainable because you can forget the bookies odds, we're in deeper shit than ever and the reality is we've a useless manager who's waiting to offload any semblance of talent he's got on the books to anyone who'll make him an offer. Fair Play rules dictate that we cannot 'speculate to accumulate' so we've got to make do with what we've got and what we've got will be looking out for better prospects no matter what they say to journalists.
Wait till the exodus starts and then see how we're fixed. Let's face it, those players who were sidelined because of the Board's experiment owe this manager no favours at all so who can blame them for leaving not so much a sinking ship but one that's sunk.
And hats off to that man who pointed a finger at who instigated the experiment... That'll go down like a lead balloon but it's time someone spoke a bit of truth for a change.
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For a change? You must be joking. I read donnyroversfc's post and thought 'give it a rest, it has been done to DEATH'.
And it has, it really has on this forum. I'm beyond sick of reading about criticism of the experiment, McKay, Saunders and everything else that went on this season.
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You have too repeat yourself on this forum, because the place is full of sad individuals who persist on slating anyone who criticises the decisions made by our (totally amateur, and out of depth) board.
I'll happily talk about the McKay thing as much as i want to. Their is still deluded people (very thick ones) out there that think the whole 'experiment' was a good thing ffs.
But yeah, Crewe are quality. Love the way their club is run, also love the fact that even when things we're going bad for them that they never once ran off crying to a football agent and prostituted themselves out. Good club, with people in charge high up who know what they are doing.
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Directors that have made as much as our main three may not always make the best decision available but cannot be called amateur and out of their depth.
Also a lot of so called very thick people on here can spell much better than you. :)
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Not being funny, if sod wanted to build from within, then why didn't he? We never had anyone in the first team from our youth team for any length of time and the ones we all thought were half decent he moved on.
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and as you put it,the ones we thought good enough have they pulled up trees at their respective clubs?
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No but what evidence is there that he wanted to build from within? This season we've given more contracts out and longer contracts than ever before. Certainly over the last ten years
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No but what evidence is there that he wanted to build from within? This season we've given more contracts out and longer contracts than ever before. Certainly over the last ten years
SOD did want some young players coming through and was instrumental in recruiting paul wilson from scunny but you need time to bring through young players and usually they come along in groups as they seem to encourage each other
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Let's hope what we're left with is sustainable because you can forget the bookies odds, we're in deeper shit than ever
Deeper shit than EVER??? Really? Were you not around in 97/98????
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Wasn't Paul Wilson recruited before SO'D became manager ?
have to say i'd love it if we followed crewe's model and had a few local players in the team
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Deeper shit than EVER??? Really? Were you not around in 97/98????
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Sunshine, I was around in 1967/68 never mind 30 years later when you seem to think the world began. I watched 3 decades of mostly pain and torture long before you arrived.
Wake up and smell the coffee. This is what Saunders said when he came in:
'My job is to change the personnel and get people in who can do their jobs properly at this level. There are players at this club who have scars from losing so many games'.
In other words he told the existing players they weren't good enough. He replaced them with what, in his opinion, were (and I quote again), 'a plethora of potential match winners'. They were not. They were shite. Individually talented, but no team ethic and ineptly led hence the catastrophic run of results leading to relegation. The only games we won after Christmas were with the old brigade, the cast offs, who are better than both you and Saunders give credit for.
Alas their value today, after being deemed not good enough to get into the worst team in the league last year, the first to be relegated in the entire country, I'd suggest it's dwindled away to pretty much zero. There's a fire sale on at the Keepmoat right now, everything must go, name your price - and there are still no takers. How can you then expect these players to pledge loyalty Saunders? Or the Board? Or take a massive pay cut?
If we don't reduce the wage bill we will be in contravention of the FFP rules and will not be allowed to sign anyone. It costs money to terminate contracts, money that can only be spent once and might have gone on new blood, but would you trust your cash with a clown who regarded the mercenaries as 'a plethora of matchwinners'? His judgement is fundamentaly flawed. That's the predicament we're in.
I hope you've not thrown away your League Two Satnav yet because I'll gamble you'll need it before you'll need the Championship one again. JR bottled it. He threw the baby out with the bathwater. Jingoism is fine and dandy for selling season tickets but reality is what you may have to face when pre-season training begins in 32 days time.
Do you seriously think we'll be ready with anything like a finalised squad by then? Of course we wont!
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Well thought out response, and some very good points. I am glad I am not the only one who thinks we are in for a massive struggle next season.
For me the experiment was a role of the dice as we had run out of ideas and money. Did it work, no, not at all. The issue as you have rightly pointed out is the lasting effects. I dont think we are in a melt down situation just yet. I still trust JR to sort this out.
I didnt see or hear anything that tells me DS is the man turn this round. If he does then I will be the first to admit I was wrong.
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No but what evidence is there that he wanted to build from within? This season we've given more contracts out and longer contracts than ever before. Certainly over the last ten years
SOD did want some young players coming through and was instrumental in recruiting paul wilson from scunny but you need time to bring through young players and usually they come along in groups as they seem to encourage each other
What happened to Robbie Clarke and Fisher who SOD brought through from the youth team, There must have been others but i cant think of any.
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Paul Wilson was recruited whilst DP was in charge. As for Sean I can tell you he thought the youth set up and the Rovers Alliance was a gimmick and that as a club we should have looked at what the other local clubs produced and try to get them e.g Baxendale.
What happened last season was wrong but I'm sick of reading both donnyroversfc and Donnybob's endless knowall postings.
We all have opinions and voicing them on forums is what they are for but not for cramming them down people's throats, give it a rest the pair of you, we all know where you stand.
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Ooooh, touchy, eh?
Some of us are equally sick of the worth a punt, we should nick this or that guy when the truth is we can't go for anyone until the mess that's been created is resolved. There is no long term plan. Fact is we've a shit manager appointed in haste by a knee-jerk board and all we've got to look forward to right now is waiting for good players to walk away.
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Deeper shit than EVER??? Really? Were you not around in 97/98????
Sunshine, I was around in 1967/68 never mind 30 years later when you seem to think the world began. I watched 3 decades of mostly pain and torture long before you arrived.
Wake up and smell the coffee. This is what Saunders said when he came in:
'My job is to change the personnel and get people in who can do their jobs properly at this level. There are players at this club who have scars from losing so many games'.
In other words he told the existing players they weren't good enough. He replaced them with what, in his opinion, were (and I quote again), 'a plethora of potential match winners'. They were not. They were shite. Individually talented, but no team ethic and ineptly led hence the catastrophic run of results leading to relegation. The only games we won after Christmas were with the old brigade, the cast offs, who are better than both you and Saunders give credit for.
Alas their value today, after being deemed not good enough to get into the worst team in the league last year, the first to be relegated in the entire country, I'd suggest it's dwindled away to pretty much zero. There's a fire sale on at the Keepmoat right now, everything must go, name your price - and there are still no takers. How can you then expect these players to pledge loyalty Saunders? Or the Board? Or take a massive pay cut?
If we don't reduce the wage bill we will be in contravention of the FFP rules and will not be allowed to sign anyone. It costs money to terminate contracts, money that can only be spent once and might have gone on new blood, but would you trust your cash with a clown who regarded the mercenaries as 'a plethora of matchwinners'? His judgement is fundamentaly flawed. That's the predicament we're in.
I hope you've not thrown away your League Two Satnav yet because I'll gamble you'll need it before you'll need the Championship one again. JR bottled it. He threw the baby out with the bathwater. Jingoism is fine and dandy for selling season tickets but reality is what you may have to face when pre-season training begins in 32 days time.
Do you seriously think we'll be ready with anything like a finalised squad by then? Of course we wont!
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Fair points mate, but just a few things. Firstly, you missed my point, i think you assumed i started watching DRFC in 97/98, i didnt. For what it's worth, I started watching them in the late 70's. My point about 97/98 was aimed at what happened that season, Richardson/Weaver etc. Surely you cant think the situation we are in now, in any way, compares to what happened then??
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Donnybob, what do you actually get out of supporting Doncaster Rovers ?
And what are you trying to achieve with your campaign to get the rest of us to come round to your way of thinking ? For me following Doncaster Rovers is my passion and my hobby, I dont agree with everything the club does but personally as a suppoter I find its much more fun to concentrate on the positives and let the management and board (and people like yourself) worry about the negatives.
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You know that's a great question. What do I actually get...?
Soundbites is the only answer that springs to mind. Oh, and abuse for respecting what was good about the club. And being reminded of where we're heading as history repeats itself. And knee jerk planning. If there's anything else I'll let you know.
Like you I would love to concentrate on the positives but having spent nearly 8 months looking I have to say I'm still having no joy in locating them. Can you point me to where they're hidden?
Wouldn't it be better if the club laid it on the line, 'Look we're sorry. We f****d up big style, made catastrophic appointments, wasted money on a fantasy that could never work and it looks like we've got to go back to the drawing board and start all over again. We weren't unlucky to go down, it was our own fault, we got too ambitious and carried away, living an impossible dream and the result is we can't be sure we won't go down again.
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If you really need me to list the positive things about supporting Doncaster Rovers I fear you really have lost your sense of perception and your view of our club is clouded by negativity.
In response to your final paragraph the answer is yes. However it would only be better for you as it would prove you to be correct. I fail to see how that statement would be beneficial in any other way.
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If you really need me to list the positive things about supporting Doncaster Rovers I fear you really have lost your sense of perception and your view of our club is clouded by negativity.
In response to your final paragraph the answer is yes. However it would only be better for you as it would prove you to be correct. I fail to see how that statement would be beneficial in any other way.
It would make me (and i imagine donnybob too) start respecting the board again.
Although i don't know why donnybob is saying the club was 'too ambitious and carried away'... It was the total opposite to that.
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If you really need me to list the positive things about supporting Doncaster Rovers I fear you really have lost your sense of perception and your view of our club is clouded by negativity.
In response to your final paragraph the answer is yes. However it would only be better for you as it would prove you to be correct. I fail to see how that statement would be beneficial in any other way.
It would make me (and i imagine donnybob too) start respecting the board again.
Although i don't know why donnybob is saying the club was 'too ambitious and carried away'... It was the total opposite to that.
Yeah your right, the board owes you an explanation to gain your respect.Its not like the board has ever done anything in the past for the club to earn the fans respect.
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If you really need me to list the positive things about supporting Doncaster Rovers I fear you really have lost your sense of perception and your view of our club is clouded by negativity.
In response to your final paragraph the answer is yes. However it would only be better for you as it would prove you to be correct. I fail to see how that statement would be beneficial in any other way.
It would make me (and i imagine donnybob too) start respecting the board again.
Although i don't know why donnybob is saying the club was 'too ambitious and carried away'... It was the total opposite to that.
Yeah your right, the board owes you an explanation to gain your respect.Its not like the board has ever done anything in the past for the club to earn the fans respect.
They let the fans down this season mate, only fair they should apologies for it.
I do have respect for the board/John Ryan... Just not as much after the past season. An apology would restore that respect back to full.
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Agree to disagree on this one donnyroversfc. Personally I don't feel like the board owes me as a fan anything. They have already done more than enough and I'm sure they will continue to do their best for the club.
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No but what evidence is there that he wanted to build from within? This season we've given more contracts out and longer contracts than ever before. Certainly over the last ten years
SOD did want some young players coming through and was instrumental in recruiting paul wilson from scunny but you need time to bring through young players and usually they come along in groups as they seem to encourage each other
Wilson was here long before sod.. We all knew one day we would be relegated it was always going to happen. So don't understand the massive OTT reaction to it. We're in league 1 still a good achievement for us, all this nonsense about history repeating itself is rubbish, we will be competitive next year and finish in the top half, which on the grand scale is another very good season.
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Deeper shit than EVER??? Really? Were you not around in 97/98????
Sunshine, I was around in 1967/68 never mind 30 years later when you seem to think the world began. I watched 3 decades of mostly pain and torture long before you arrived.
Wake up and smell the coffee. This is what Saunders said when he came in:
'My job is to change the personnel and get people in who can do their jobs properly at this level. There are players at this club who have scars from losing so many games'.
In other words he told the existing players they weren't good enough. He replaced them with what, in his opinion, were (and I quote again), 'a plethora of potential match winners'. They were not. They were shite. Individually talented, but no team ethic and ineptly led hence the catastrophic run of results leading to relegation. The only games we won after Christmas were with the old brigade, the cast offs, who are better than both you and Saunders give credit for.
Alas their value today, after being deemed not good enough to get into the worst team in the league last year, the first to be relegated in the entire country, I'd suggest it's dwindled away to pretty much zero. There's a fire sale on at the Keepmoat right now, everything must go, name your price - and there are still no takers. How can you then expect these players to pledge loyalty Saunders? Or the Board? Or take a massive pay cut?
If we don't reduce the wage bill we will be in contravention of the FFP rules and will not be allowed to sign anyone. It costs money to terminate contracts, money that can only be spent once and might have gone on new blood, but would you trust your cash with a clown who regarded the mercenaries as 'a plethora of matchwinners'? His judgement is fundamentaly flawed. That's the predicament we're in.
I hope you've not thrown away your League Two Satnav yet because I'll gamble you'll need it before you'll need the Championship one again. JR bottled it. He threw the baby out with the bathwater. Jingoism is fine and dandy for selling season tickets but reality is what you may have to face when pre-season training begins in 32 days time.
Do you seriously think we'll be ready with anything like a finalised squad by then? Of course we wont!
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You cascade Saunders, but lay no blame with sod, he also had an awful run of results. You say the players are better than we think but then complain that nobody else wants them. The players weren't good enough when Saunders came in, the results over the previous 8 months proved that.
Saunders hasn't bought a player yet, his only options were loan players nobody else wanted, yes he knew that before he joined, but anybody in their right mind wouldn't turn down the opportunity that he was given.
The squad isn't his, the only players hes signed are the youth team players and maybe bêye and Robert if they're here.
Can't understand the mentality of people not giving him an opportunity to build his own squad of players. Then judge him, no manager can be successful trying to manage players he didn't sign and especially when they don't suit his managerial style, happened to sod and then look what happened when jr ignored the fans and stuck by him.
That's the precedent, jr knew what he was doing then ignored impatient and irrational fans and I for one am glad he's ignoring certain fans again.
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Interesting thread this one as a reader.
This season, the experiment, McKay, Skintness, Board Leaving then coming back, Saunders, SOD, Copps, Sharp, Oster, Woods, Martis, Fortune, Diouf, Chimbonda, Dangerous Dave, Gavin Baldwin, Stock etc. etc. etc. has merely compounded what I felt last season.
At the time last season that I'm thinking of, after a great start .... and a second half 'We ran out of Ideas, got Loads of Injuries and Basically Self-Imploded season' said to my cousin at the Preston game 'This is huge - we lose this we could go down and down and down some more and end up back in the conference,' My cousin laughed at me and asked - "Do you really think it's that serious?" "Yep" says I, 'Like it or not we're punching well above our weight - still ... after a few years of Championship Football, if we aren't kept tight we're gonna struggle - our players are far better as a sum than their individual worth!' This hasn't changed, in my opinion the signs were there last season and (again in my opinion) in all fairness, they were there with a slightly better manager who's players believed in what he was saying (if not exactly how they could show this) and who weren't being chucked away as part of an experiment that has ultimately gone tits up!
We are DRFC - we are and always will be shite, we will always eventually spend our days locking horns with the Mansfields, Crewes, Torquays, Carlisles of this world and may occasionally get to play the Leeds, Leicesters, Derbys and Forests (or on the flip side) Telfords, Nuneatons, Northwiches and so on of this world but DRFC are my team and I only hope the next season is better than the last - what more can you do?
It's crap again at the moment - but whose to say it won't be better again in a year or two?
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Okay Whisky, help me with my lost sense of perception. List the positives to be drawn from our current predicament. Over budget, in contravention of FFP rules and facing the possibility of sanctions. Pre-season games start in barely 6 weeks time.
This ‘massive OTT reaction’ dickos1 is not because of relegation, it is to the manner of how it was brought about and the inevitable aftermath that surrounds catastrophic managerial and policy decisions. Please do tell me on what factual basis you can possibly state categorically that we will be competitive next year and finish in the top half?
And furthermore dickos1, I do not cascade Saunders. I castigate. Cascade is defined as: ‘a series that once initiated continues to the end, each step being triggered by the preceding one, sometimes with cumulative effect’ and I would suggest that is what the Chairman instigated back in September resulting in relegation.
Please don’t feel sorry for Saunders. He wasn’t forced to come here and he arrived with his eyes wide open like a kiddy in a sweetshop. He had the final say on every player we recruited. He hasn’t actually bought a player, as you say, but had the January transfer window to buy and sell in. He clearly chose not to. He could sign out of contract players and players without clubs at any time on permanent deals. He chose not to.
As for the evidence that he wanted to build from within? Read the Free Press Archives where SOD categorically stated to JR that the current model was unsustainable and we should be a selling club, nurturing and developing talent.
The players Saunders inherited had been pushing for a play-off place barely 6 months previous. Saunders arrived when players like Billy were coming back into contention following injuries. Unfortunately they were deemed by this Conference monkey to be not good enough, sidelined, alienated and kept out of the shop window thus diminishing any residual value they had. It’s a tough job for any agent to tout round a player who wasn’t deemed good enough to get into the worst TEAM in the Championship by a mile last season. Hence their worth has capitulated.
Donnyroversfc stated, ‘i don't know why donnybob is saying the club was too ambitious and carried away... It was the total opposite to that.’ Afraid I have to disagree there. JR told the media he hadn’t given up on the play-offs this season after recruiting Willie appointing Saunders and that he fully expected the club to be pushing for promotion to the Premiership the following season. Considering where we are now and what is happening with the squad I put it to you his enthusiasm was a tad over-ambitious, wouldn’t you agree?
As ctay suggests, if DS turns things around he’ll be the first to admit he was wrong. I’ll be second, too, if we bounce straight back to the Championship but I fear there’s more chance of me having a period than that!
Oh to be in Crewe or Crawley's shoes now...
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Okay Whisky, help me with my lost sense of perception. List the positives to be drawn from our current predicament. Over budget, in contravention of FFP rules and facing the possibility of sanctions. Pre-season games start in barely 6 weeks time.
This ‘massive OTT reaction’ dickos1 is not because of relegation, it is to the manner of how it was brought about and the inevitable aftermath that surrounds catastrophic managerial and policy decisions. Please do tell me on what factual basis you can possibly state categorically that we will be competitive next year and finish in the top half?
And furthermore dickos1, I do not cascade Saunders. I castigate. Cascade is defined as: ‘a series that once initiated continues to the end, each step being triggered by the preceding one, sometimes with cumulative effect’ and I would suggest that is what the Chairman instigated back in September resulting in relegation.
Please don’t feel sorry for Saunders. He wasn’t forced to come here and he arrived with his eyes wide open like a kiddy in a sweetshop. He had the final say on every player we recruited. He hasn’t actually bought a player, as you say, but had the January transfer window to buy and sell in. He clearly chose not to. He could sign out of contract players and players without clubs at any time on permanent deals. He chose not to.
As for the evidence that he wanted to build from within? Read the Free Press Archives where SOD categorically stated to JR that the current model was unsustainable and we should be a selling club, nurturing and developing talent.
The players Saunders inherited had been pushing for a play-off place barely 6 months previous. Saunders arrived when players like Billy were coming back into contention following injuries. Unfortunately they were deemed by this Conference monkey to be not good enough, sidelined, alienated and kept out of the shop window thus diminishing any residual value they had. It’s a tough job for any agent to tout round a player who wasn’t deemed good enough to get into the worst TEAM in the Championship by a mile last season. Hence their worth has capitulated.
Donnyroversfc stated, ‘i don't know why donnybob is saying the club was too ambitious and carried away... It was the total opposite to that.’ Afraid I have to disagree there. JR told the media he hadn’t given up on the play-offs this season after recruiting Willie appointing Saunders and that he fully expected the club to be pushing for promotion to the Premiership the following season. Considering where we are now and what is happening with the squad I put it to you his enthusiasm was a tad over-ambitious, wouldn’t you agree?
As ctay suggests, if DS turns things around he’ll be the first to admit he was wrong. I’ll be second, too, if we bounce straight back to the Championship but I fear there’s more chance of me having a period than that!
Oh to be in Crewe or Crawley's shoes now...
There is a simple solution Donnybob.
If you are so anti everything Doncaster Rovers and so madly in love with Crawley (or should I say O'Driscoll) why not support them or maybe Crewe as that is a bit nearer.
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Okay Whisky, help me with my lost sense of perception. List the positives to be drawn from our current predicament. Over budget, in contravention of FFP rules and facing the possibility of sanctions. Pre-season games start in barely 6 weeks time.
This ‘massive OTT reaction’ dickos1 is not because of relegation, it is to the manner of how it was brought about and the inevitable aftermath that surrounds catastrophic managerial and policy decisions. Please do tell me on what factual basis you can possibly state categorically that we will be competitive next year and finish in the top half?
And furthermore dickos1, I do not cascade Saunders. I castigate. Cascade is defined as: ‘a series that once initiated continues to the end, each step being triggered by the preceding one, sometimes with cumulative effect’ and I would suggest that is what the Chairman instigated back in September resulting in relegation.
Please don’t feel sorry for Saunders. He wasn’t forced to come here and he arrived with his eyes wide open like a kiddy in a sweetshop. He had the final say on every player we recruited. He hasn’t actually bought a player, as you say, but had the January transfer window to buy and sell in. He clearly chose not to. He could sign out of contract players and players without clubs at any time on permanent deals. He chose not to.
As for the evidence that he wanted to build from within? Read the Free Press Archives where SOD categorically stated to JR that the current model was unsustainable and we should be a selling club, nurturing and developing talent.
The players Saunders inherited had been pushing for a play-off place barely 6 months previous. Saunders arrived when players like Billy were coming back into contention following injuries. Unfortunately they were deemed by this Conference monkey to be not good enough, sidelined, alienated and kept out of the shop window thus diminishing any residual value they had. It’s a tough job for any agent to tout round a player who wasn’t deemed good enough to get into the worst TEAM in the Championship by a mile last season. Hence their worth has capitulated.
Donnyroversfc stated, ‘i don't know why donnybob is saying the club was too ambitious and carried away... It was the total opposite to that.’ Afraid I have to disagree there. JR told the media he hadn’t given up on the play-offs this season after recruiting Willie appointing Saunders and that he fully expected the club to be pushing for promotion to the Premiership the following season. Considering where we are now and what is happening with the squad I put it to you his enthusiasm was a tad over-ambitious, wouldn’t you agree?
As ctay suggests, if DS turns things around he’ll be the first to admit he was wrong. I’ll be second, too, if we bounce straight back to the Championship but I fear there’s more chance of me having a period than that!
Oh to be in Crewe or Crawley's shoes now...
Bob, can you state categorically that we won't be competitive next year? And that we will go down? Of course you can't, no fan in the country can that's what makes being a supporter exciting cause you never know.
As for Saunders I don't feel sorry for him at all, you say he had the final decision on every player, correct but that was the final decision on players that were mostly not good enough, give fergie a group of average players and say take your pick and even he will struggle he can't turn them into good players can he.
His hands were tied.
Who in January could he have signed, with no money? We even sold our best player and he wasn't given any of the cash, he released quite a lot of players in jan but didn't have the cash to bring anyone in. He didn't choose not to that's just ridiculous.
Sod did believe in developing players, like Bennett, dumbuya, but the lack of players coming through the youth team must be partly down to him not trusting them and not giving them contracts longer than 3 or 4 months.
The players were good enough 8 months previous, but that happens look at reading in prem, first season they finished in top 6 the next season they went down. We were in a terrible run of form 2 wins in 30 odd, it doesn't matter how good they were 8 months before, they were struggling for 8 months continually and people forget that. We hadn't won in 19 games, we were bottom of the table and then you have a go at Saunders for trying to change the players around. They had failed under a great manager, therefore they weren't good enough.
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It'd be brilliant to have a youth system like Crewe but while ever we've got a centre of excellence and teams like Shef U, L9%ds and Barnsley and Hull have got acadamys we are pissing in the wind.
As soon as any kid with any sort of potential is out of nappies they are collared by LUFC and training down at their satellite acadamy at Hayfield school. When it comes to signing apprentices the acadamies have the first pick of all the best players then the rest of the clubs scrap over what's left.
To actually have an acadamy would take millions of pounds in investment as certain criteria must be met, it'd then take about 20 years of good management and developing coaching and scouting networks.
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Ooooh, touchy, eh?
Some of us are equally sick of the worth a punt, we should nick this or that guy when the truth is we can't go for anyone until the mess that's been created is resolved. There is no long term plan. Fact is we've a shit manager appointed in haste by a knee-jerk board and all we've got to look forward to right now is waiting for good players to walk away.
Touchy, no, fed up trying to read threads that are hijacked continuously by the same rhetoric, yes!
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Yeah, oh how I'd love to be like Crawley. Bankrolled by some rich owner who if he leaves would see Crawley soon plunge back to the dark cloud of nothingness they came from, a set of thugs for players and a reputation that is among the worst in the football league overall.
Most importantly, Crawley (and Crewe for that matter) are not currently better sides than us. Why would we want to be in their shoes?
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Oh Donnybob, I agree with you on something's you say and I disagree on many others but to start listing them would be going in circles. What I suggest is you cut back on this coffee of yours you keep inviting the rest of us unenlightened individuals to smell (have a few whiskies instead ) and try to enjoy the summer safe in the knowledge that there are people far more knowledgeable and experienced running this club than you or I. Any potential problem you can think of will have been given much more thought than you by the board, they may have even thought about solutions to these problems aswell.